After the oil embargo against Russia: oil should now come from Kazakhstan – contracts are about to be concluded

Created: 09/01/2023 17:39

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The large refinery in Schwedt is to be supplied with oil from Kazakhstan in the future.

© Patrick Pleul/dpa/archive image

The German import ban on Russian oil has been in effect since January.

The large refinery in Schwedt is now to be supplied with oil from the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.

Schwedt – Since the turn of the year, no more oil has flowed from Russia to Germany.

For almost 60 years before that, Russian crude oil had been arriving in Schwedt, Brandenburg, from the Druzhba pipeline.

This is now over: The refinery PCK with 1200 employees gets other crude oil via the port of Rostock - this means a far lower utilization of 50 percent.

Kazakhstan is to deliver oil to Germany in the future

Now the large refinery is to be supplied with oil from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

The Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Monday that the contract negotiations with the Central Asian country are "on the right track and that a conclusion will be reached".

Pipeline transits for Kazakh oil have already been registered, a ministry spokeswoman said.

She did not want to give any further details - she pointed out that the negotiations would be conducted by private companies.

Alternatives have been sought for months so that the PCK refinery in Schwedt can be used to capacity without oil from Russia.

The ministry spokeswoman said the refinery would be operating at about 70 percent capacity with the targeted oil shipments.

This ensures security of supply.

A refinery is "never at 100 percent capacity," she added.

Kazakhstan is one of the largest oil producers in Central Asia

The spokeswoman pointed out that the federal government had "politically flanked" the contract negotiations with Kazakhstan.

A delegation from the ministry had been in Kazakhstan, and there had also been talks at ministerial level.

The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan is one of the largest oil producers in Central Asia.

In 2020, the oil business contributed more than 20 percent to the gross national product of the authoritarian state.

The largest Kazakh oil field, Tengiz, is 50 percent owned by the US company Chevron.